


There's a Lot of Lesbians in Belfast

by gillxana



Category: The Fall (TV 2013)
Genre: Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:27:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28863294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gillxana/pseuds/gillxana
Summary: When Dani's date doesn't show up, she goes to work where she meets Stella, who tries to cheer her friend up.
Relationships: Danielle Ferrington/Stella Gibson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	There's a Lot of Lesbians in Belfast

**Author's Note:**

> excuse any typos, wanted to get this out while twitter were going through another stella obsession xx

Belfast, Northern Ireland  
1:00 am

The office was empty, except for one blonde detective sleeping in a small cot on the floor. She had worked late again, and decided that it wasn’t worth going all the way back to the hotel just to get a few hours of sleep. After all, Stella wasn’t in Belfast to sleep. 

She was not sleeping in the cot either. It was uncomfortable and her clothes weren’t made for sleeping in. While laying in the darkness she thought about the case, she thought about that last splash of milk she had left in the fridge in her London flat. She started making a grocery list in her head to bore her brain to sleep. Milk, bread, wine. Cheese. 

The lights outside of her office suddenly turned on. Stella flew out of the cot and quickly shimmied into her skirt, that she had taken off when realising you couldn’t sleep in a penn skirt. Wondering who might be there that late, she opened her door carefully and went out into the bullpen. It was empty. Maybe it was a mouse? The smallest movement triggers the motion detection sometimes. To be sure, Stella grabbed her gun and started looking for whoever might be there at that hour.

She left the bullpen and went to the cafeteria, a room where she herself spent very little time. Stella was not the type to grab a coffee with her co-workers and gossip during her breaks. A series of loud crashes from the cafeteria made her slow down. Following the crash came a sentence with more swear words than Stella had ever heard. Most of them she didn’t recognize, probably best she didn’t. Stella knew immediately who the voice belonged to and stepped into the room. On the floor was a redhead dressed in a pretty, green dress that unfortunately had a big coffee stain on its skirt. Following the mess down, Stella saw that her PC had tried to make herself a cup but for some reason dropped it. 

“Dani?” she saw softly, not wanting to scare the obviously upset woman. What was she doing here this late? While Danielle Ferrington worked very hard, she didn’t work this hard. And not in a dress. 

“Ma’am, I’m sorry I just-” she struggled to get up. Is Dani drunk?

“Just Stella, please. What are you doing here, Dani? Are you okay?” These weeks that Stella had known Dani, she had always been very professional and never, unlike others, let her down. Stella might even consider Dani her closest friend in Belfast, that she hadn’t spent a night with. Or tried to. 

“Don’t worry, ma’- Stella. I’m okay, just on my way home.” the redhead said, sounding like herself. Except that something clearly troubled her, the way she swayed anxiously and almost cradled the coffee pot. Stella went over to the counter and grabbed a towel for her. Dani wasn’t drunk, she realised. She was sad. On a regular day she shined like the sun, her mood could even make Jim Burns crack a smile sometimes. But where there usually are a pair of - almost golden - eyes full of life, Stella was met with a feeling she wasn’t very used to. Heartbreak. She sighed sadly and grabbed Dani’s elbow.

“Come, I might have something you can dab on your dress. Wouldn’t want to ruin such a lovely dress now, would we?” Dani followed Stella like a puppy to her office, not saying a word. They left the mess in the cafeteria and Stella made a mental note to go back later to pick up the broken mug before people started arriving in the morning. She gestured for Dani to sit down on the sofa and walked behind her desk to find the tissues she always kept in her purse. 

“Is coming into work in the middle of the night a habit of yours?” Stella tried to lighten her mood, failing. Dani shook her head and stared at her knees, hand visibly shaking.

“You can talk to me, Dani. Do you need me to report anyone? Are you hurt?” she was imagining the worst, as the detective she was. While Dani seemed physically fine, you never know what someone could’ve been through. 

“I’m fine! I was just stopping by on my way home, I-I’ve been out and really needed some coffee” Dani said, turning to Stella. She had a good poker face, but Stella kept trying.

“Out? With friends? Co-workers? My invitation must’ve gotten lost” They both knew Stella would never have agreed to go out with these co-workers on a friday night. Dani rolled her eyes.

“No, a date I guess. Didn’t go as planned, though” Aha! Stella could see the cracks in Dani’s facade.

“No Prince Charming?” Dani laughed at her suggestion. Laughed? Stella raised an eyebrow at her and the laughing stopped when Dani got that Stella wasn’t joking, obviously.

“I’m gay, ma’am. I thought everyone knew by now” her voice was serious, and a little bit sad. There was clearly a story there.

“Stella. But no Princess Charming either, I assume”

“She never showed up. Waited at the theatre for two hours before she texted me saying she changed her mind. ‘This isn’t who she is’, apparently.” Stella remembered the other night when she was in the same scenario, only that her date actually showed up. 

“Maybe we have more in common than we thought” she mumbled, not really knowing where she was planning on taking this conversation. Stella had never hid her sexuality, but it never really came up in conversations. It just happens.

“Stella?” Dani brought her back with a voice thick with tears

“Are you okay? Need me to call you a taxi?” she said quickly, not wanting to get into her own issues.

“There’s something else” she was so quiet Stella had to lean closer to hear her.

“She kind of works here and I really don’t want to see her tomorrow.” 

“Anyone I know?” Stella tried to joke again. She hadn’t bothered to learn the names of everyone in the force, only the detectives and officers on her case.

“DC Gail McNally” Stella was surprised, to say the least.

“Three days ago I almost brought Reed Smith to my hotel room. She left, though. Didn’t even make it up the lift. Apparently she’s from Croydon” Stella opened up. She wasn’t really sure why she told Dani, it just felt like the right thing to do. 

“Are you-” Dani looked like one big question mark, but equally as worried as confused. Why was Stella telling her this?

“Yes” Was she what? Gay? Bisexual? Into women? Stella herself wasn’t really sure, but didn’t think it mattered. “ My point is, you’re not alone. McNally wasn’t ready. This doesn’t mean that she hates you, she said yes once, right? Give her time, and when she has figured out what she wants she’ll approach you, if that’s what she wants. Yes, making you wait for two hours was a bit of a dick move, but at least she didn’t let you kiss her first” Stella tried explaining, with a wink. She really wasn’t good at this advice thing, but she cared about Dani and didn’t want to send her home to wallow by herself.

“I say this because I care about you, Dani, I actually consider you a friend of mine. I don’t have many friends.”

Stella felt Dani fling her arms around her neck in a bone-crushing hug, and she awkwardly put her arm around the smaller redhead.

“Ma’am. Stella. Thank you.” Dani said, with her head pressed into Stellas neck. She sniffled and Stella felt her neck getting wet with her tears. Oh boy. She didn’t want to upset her more. Carefully, she pried herself out of Dani’s embrace and held her hands in hers. 

“You live here, why don’t you tell me who else in Belfast enjoys the company of other women?” she smirked.

“Oh,” Dani blushed, “Well I did hear this story about Sally Ann Spector-”

**Author's Note:**

> to danielle, not ferrington <3


End file.
